A blog about running
that has metamorphosed
into one about life in general.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

My First Workout With The Asus Transformer

I’ve been trying to find reasons
not to buy a tablet PC. After all, I can only think of one reason to get one
and that is to read the news while working out on the stationary bike and
treadmill, which I’ve blogged about before. So far I’ve managed to make do with
my trusty old netbook, so why buy another device which would be used in a
similar way?

Well, Tigerdirect.com has been
tempting me for weeks with their post holiday specials. First they offered a
refurbished Asus Tranformer 101 for $319 (regular price for a new one is $399).
Then they slashed it down further to $299 and that finally broke my resolve. I
absolutely had to have one!

Wait a minute, so I wanted to buy this
tablet PC so I can read the news while working out, because I didn’t want to
continue my daily subscription to the local newspaper, because they increased
their prices, right? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of saving money since the
price of the tablet PC is roughly 3 year’s worth of newspapers? Especially that
I’m able to do the same thing on the netbook? I’m debating myself here
regarding a want or a need and the want side won. Blame Steve Jobs for that
because he came up with the Ipad.

Well UPS delivered the device last
week and since I had a few days off, it gave me the opportunity to try to
figure out how it works. After tinkering with it for several days, I still
don’t fully get it. What can it do that a laptop or netbook can’t? I think I
was able to adjust most of the settings to my liking and needs. Things like learning
to open a link in a new browser tab, synching my contact list and my bookmarks,
and downloading apps similar to the ones I use in my laptop.

After all that, I was finally able to
test it out on the treadmill, twice already in fact. Here are some findings. While hill walking on the treadmill, I was
able to read the digital edition of the local paper quite easily. The problem
was the page didn’t fit in the whole screen so I had to swipe from left to
right and back often. While turning a page, sometimes I would press the back
button by mistake instead of the forward button(that was the only way to turn
the newspaper page – you couldn’t swipe to the next page). When I scroll up or
down, the page sometimes doesn’t go in a straight line because of my movements
on the treadmill. Compare that to the netbook where I only press the up or down
arrow button. I don’t think reading anything would work with either tablet or
netbook if I run on the treadmill (which I could do with a real newspaper
although it took some effort to turn a page). Wait, I think I just found one
advantage and that it’s easier to turn a page. On the recumbent bike, the tablet
and netbook worked similarly other than instead of looking up to the netbook
screen, I can now look down on the tablet thereby lessening the discomfort on
my neck. I still have to try the tablet on the spinning bike.

So, is this refurbished tablet a
keeper? I can’t say I don’t like it. The learning curve is small if you already
use laptops and smartphones. Oh well, because of the store policy, I can’t
return it anyway unless it’s damaged and it would just be replaced with another
refurbished one. So I get to keep it by default. Just as well I guess. After
all I have to keep up with the technological times while I can still somewhat
afford it. Ai, ai, ai, my poor credit card L.

2 comments:

Your comment about spending money on a computer so you can read the newspaper online so you don't have to pay the increasing subscription costs made me laugh. :) I can read on an elliptical and stationary bike, but I'm so not coordinated enough to do it on a treadmill.

"After all, I can only think of one reason to get one and that is to read the news while working out on the stationary bike and treadmill..." - Hahah. I think that is enough reason to buy one. Well, there are couple of reasons for me that's why i bought one. I can carry it anywhere and check my emails and social media accounts anytime. Pretty convenient, don't you think? - Betty

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About Me

I started writing this blog to chronicle my devastating running injury in October of 2008. It has since turned into something I didn't expect: stories and anecdotes about everyday life. On 7/26/11, I retitled this blog from noeldlp.blogspot.com to aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com. I remain permanently injured with PTTD on both ankles but I keep on trying to run nonetheless. I'm not sure if it's passion or insanity. You be the judge.